


In Time

by willownorthbook



Category: Star Stable
Genre: Breakup, F/F, Healing, High School, Other, SUCH GOOD G R O W T H
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-26
Updated: 2019-01-26
Packaged: 2019-10-16 08:30:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17546183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/willownorthbook/pseuds/willownorthbook
Summary: Oskar knows Willow's hurting from her breakup with Kai. He calls in her step-brother, Shane, to help.





	In Time

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place way before any main story when Willow is only 17. At this point, it's early in her senior year (12th grade). Shane's already graduated but they're still close.

Minutes turned to hours. Hours turned to days. Days turned to weeks. This was normally how the structure of time would work for Willow. But, now… after the truth was revealed, everything went backward. Instead of planning gigs with the band weeks ahead, scheduling practice for a couple days in the future… Suddenly, she couldn’t even find herself planning something for so much as later in the same day. Weeks turned to days. Days turned to hours. Hours turned to minutes.

Minute by minute, she took. Under her blankets, hugging her tear-stained pillow, she listened to the clock slowly tick, second after second. It rang loudly in her ears, but even its ticking couldn’t replace the thoughts screaming in her mind.

_What did I do wrong?_

_I love you._

_How was I so dumb?_

_I love you so much._

_I must’ve deserved it._

_I miss you._

_How could I’ve been so blind?_

_I wish you were here._

Everything reminded Willow of her. Every song, every hallway, every “hello”, and especially every “goodbye”. It’d been three weeks now. Nothing was helping. She felt so… hopeless. Even Oskar wasn’t sure of what to do. Until…

\- - - 

Oskar leaned against the counter in the kitchen of his small apartment, quietly sipping on some coffee. Willow was currently napping in her room, as she tended to do on the weekends since the breakup. He tried to be strong for her. Really, he did. But Willow was his everything. She was his little angel, his shining star. They were so close. He knew her better than anyone else, and yet right now, she felt like a stranger. He couldn’t blame her, though. Despite everything Oskar had been taught in his life so far, he couldn’t tell how his little Willow tree was feeling at all. It hurt him to see her hurt, and it hurt him, even more, to not be able to help ease her pain.

His thoughts cleared momentarily when he heard a familiar knock at the door. Two slow beats, followed by two quick beats. Oskar cleared his throat, setting his coffee down on the counter behind him and walked towards the door.

“Shane,” he greeted, smiling softly. “I didn’t even hear you come up the stairs.” He took two steps back, allowing the tall teen entry.

Shane adjusted his leather jacket over his shoulders, his hand running through his shoulder-length jet black hair. His blonde roots were starting to show, but he had more important matters to tend to. “Thanks for letting me stop by.” Normally that would’ve ended with “dad” since the two were basically father and son at this point, but both of them were too preoccupied to think of that.

Oskar waved his hand. “It’s no problem. Thank you for coming. I know you have a lot of work so I didn’t want to bother you, but I’m so worried about Wills.”

“I know. I am too, which is why I’m glad you called me. How is she? Where is she?” Shane put his hands in his pockets, leaning back against the shut door.

“Sleeping, as usual now. She’s never this… empty. Even when she’s sick, she’s always finding something to do. Homework, reading, playing bass, going out to town. In all almost 17 years of her life, I’ve never seen her so secluded.” Oskar glanced towards the hallway, tears gleaming in his green eyes. He put his hand up to wipe them away. Not that he minded Shane seeing. He was just worried about Willow walking out and seeing her father hurting too. If she knew how much Oskar felt towards this, she’d feel even worse.

Shane let out a long breath through his nose, his head shaking. “No one deserves this. Especially not Wills. I can’t imagine how she feels right now.”

“Neither can I, and that’s part of what scares me.” Oskar walked back towards the kitchen to retrieve his coffee (though he could still hear and see Shane, it was an open apartment). “I really hope you can help her somehow. I don’t want to put pressure on you, Steel, but she really needs someone her age that she looks up to right now. She has plenty of friends, but really. You are her brother, blood or not. I think she really needs you.” 

There was another pause before Shane pushed himself from the door. “I’ll do my best. I mean, we both know I can’t instantly fix anything, but… even waking her up right now and just getting her mind on something else might help.”

Oskar offered a weak smile, lightly patting Shane’s shoulder a few times. “Thank you. This means a lot to me.”

On that note, Oskar made his way into the living area of the apartment to take a seat on the couch. Shane watched him, then turned on his heel to go down the small hallway that led to the bathroom and two bedrooms. The door on the left he knew was the bathroom. To the right, her father’s room. Right in front of him, though, was a door that was once familiar to him. Photos, sketches, and notes once adorned this white door that had the name “WILLOW” painted in green on the top. Now, though, the only thing that remained was the name. It really had been a while since Shane had visited, hadn’t it been?

Shane cleared his throat, his hand reaching up to knock on Willow’s door. Once he heard her stir, he stepped in. He made sure to shut the door quietly behind him to give them privacy.

Willow pulled the blanket tighter over her head, expecting it to be her father. Shane’s eyebrows raised in concern. She had to be hurting more than he thought to even be shying away from him. He went over to the window, opening the blinds halfway. Willow groaned in annoyance.

“Dad, please, I just want to be alone,” she grumbled, her voice quiet from the sheets.

“I’m not leaving,” Shane said simply. At that, Willow noticeably jumped. Shane moved to stand at the foot of her bed, watching her as she slowly uncovered her face to see him.

“... Shane? What are you doing here? You have work.”

“Had, not have. I haven’t called out once in about three years, they can get over themselves if they have a problem with today.” His mouth formed a crooked smile. “Can I sit down?”

Willow was hesitant, but she rolled over to face him, moving her feet closer to the wall so he had room at the foot of the bed. She was still keeping all but her eyes and nose covered with blankets.

A silence stretched between the two of them. “So… how’s school been?”

Willow rolled her eyes. “The usual, now. Hell.”

“And why’s that?” he continued, “Too much work from Ms. Kate? Mr. Burnley giving you too many vocab words again?”

“You know why,” she said, her gaze falling to the floor. Her eyes started to water, and she pulled the blanket up over her face. Or, tried to. Shane grabbed the end of it to stop her.

“Wills. Come, now. Don’t try to hide the pain. Let it out.”

“And why should I? It’s not going to go away. It’s never going to go away. I’ll never be able to trust anyone again as long as I live. Everything I’ve ever felt and known, everything I thought that grounded me for three years is just… gone. In the blink of an eye. Unfortunately, I seem to have taken a two-year long blink.” The more she spoke, the more broken up her voice became, the more her words turned to sobs. Since she couldn’t cover her face with the blanket, she put both hands on her face, crying softly into them.

Seeing this brought out so many emotions in Shane. He felt the pit in his chest, knowing how alone she must feel. He could feel his eyes stinging, ‘cause how couldn’t he cry at seeing how much his sister hurt? He could feel the anger in his throat, having to fight the urge to yell about how much was wrong with this situation, how wrong Kai was, and just… hell, he didn’t even know.

“Wills-” he was startled slightly by a louder sob from her. “Wills, please. Sit up. Come here.”

Again, the teen was hesitant. It took a little more encouragement from Shane for Willow to bring herself to sit up in bed. She was quick to make herself more comfortable, securing herself more with the blankets.

For the moment, the two looked at each other. Willow’s face was red and puffy, but the tears stopped coming down her face for now. Shane stretched his arm out in front of her to grab her tissue box for her. His arms were long enough anyway, given his height and the fact she only had a twin-size bed anyway.

“Clean off your face,” he instructed softly. Willow listened, sniffling as she wiped the tears away and blew her nose a couple times. Once the tissues were thrown away, Shane shifted closer, pulling Willow into a warm and comforting embrace. The girl untangled her arms from the fabric to return the hug. She buried her face in the shoulder of his leather jacket, breathing in the familiar smell of leather and cologne. Shane’s hand lightly rubbed Willow’s back, and he even started to sway her gently, side to side to help her relax.

“Everything’s gonna be alright, Wills,” he mumbled to her. “I’m not gonna lie and tell you everything’s okay right now, ‘cause it’s not. Your heart is bleeding. It’s going to take a long time for you to heal. But that’s the thing. You _will_ heal, in time. It’s only been a couple of weeks. A couple of weeks of truth versus a couple of years of lies is nothing. There’s no telling how long it’ll take for your heart to stop bleeding, for it to scar over, but I can promise you that those days will come. You just have to keep your head up. Keep going. Be well, be strong.”

Willow could feel her eyes stinging, threatening to let tears take over her face again. But, that didn’t happen. Slowly, her shoulders relaxed in Shane’s grip. She found herself able to turn her head to look around, even trying to look outside as the rays of sun snuck into the room between the blinds. Whatever Shane had said, even if Oskar had said it before -- it clicked. It might not have clicked fully, and she may need to hear it again, but Shane would repeat it for a thousand years if it meant his sister would heal. And he knew she would. 

Once it seemed things had calmed down, the two stayed in their embrace, but Shane changed the subject. He told her some lighthearted stories from work, even getting her to giggle every so often. Eventually, Willow also told some short stories of her own from school. Before long, the two were having a (mostly) regular conversation. Shane was slowly able to back away from her arms, and they were still talking. Willow may not have even noticed, but Shane couldn’t hide his happiness. It was small progress, but it was better than nothing.

About an hour passed. At that point, Shane knew it’d be best for him to be heading home. He gave Willow a hug and forehead kiss goodbye, reminded her he’d text her, and left the room. He met Oskar by the front door.

“How is she?” the worried father asked.

“I think I got through to her. I probably said the same things you did, to be honest. Sorry.”

“Oh, don’t be sorry. I understand if she takes it better from you. You’re her brother, after all. What’d you say to her, though, out of curiosity?”

Shane shrugged. “Just reminded her that everything would be okay. That this would pass, and she was strong enough to get through it. Managed to change the topic to work and school, even to music.”

Oskar smirked. “Ah, music. I hope she picks up her bass again soon.”

“So do I. She’s so talented with that. It’d be a shame to see that go. Speaking of, though, I really need to be going. It’s getting late.”

“Well, thanks again, Shane. Really. It means a lot.” With that, Oskar and Shane hugged goodbye.

Shane creaked open the front door and was halfway out when Oskar shushed him. “Wait. What’s that sound?”

Shane arched his brow, looking around. His eyes widened when he realized, a grin spreading on his face.

“I think we both know what it is.”

He smiled at Oskar, his gaze shifting to Willow’s door. Oskar’s eyes brightened. The sound of a bass being tuned rang in their ears.


End file.
